In "The Rebel" (1952), the French Algerian writer Albert Camus (1913-'60) famously wrote, "The metaphysical rebel protests against the condition in which he finds himself as a man." Critics of Camus claim that the Nobel Prize winner ironically misperceived or underestimated that in his own land, colonized Muslims faced severe metaphysical consequences resulting from an oppressive colonialism. Given the publication of "Algerian Chronicles," a chronological collection of Camus' essays from the 1930s to the 1950s, this criticism needs re-examination and reinterpretation.

An appendix enhances the collection and includes an article by Camus celebrating the Mediterranean as a transcultural space of encounter and interaction. In addition, Camus' often-repeated controversial statement in 1957, "I believe in justice, but I will defend my mother before justice," is contextually considered and corrected.

The book begins with a set of essays from the 1930s dealing with Camus' investigation of the privation, starvation and "destitution" of Kabylia, a Berber region of eastern Algeria. It is a scathing exposé of colonial misadministration and worse yet, indifference. He equates Kabyle wages as tantamount to "slave labor" and appeals for greater local autonomy, citing France's failure to apply conscientiously its vaunted policy of assimilation.

Throughout the book, Camus contends that there were lost opportunities to foster closer, collaborative relations between the colonized and colonialists, such as the Blum-Viollette bill of 1936 that sought to extend the rights of French citizenship to Muslims and the nationalist Ferhat Abbas' "Manifesto of the Algerian People" declared in 1943 and amended in 1945. It called for an autonomous Algeria linked to France. Unlike most European settlers in Algeria, Camus strongly supported these initiatives.

He pleaded to his readers (and especially colonialists) that the colonized "Arab people also exist. . . . They aren't the wretched faceless mob in which Westerners see nothing worth respecting or defending. . . . They are a people of impressive traditions." From Camus' perspective, the colonialists' dominating supremacy prevented reflection and reform with predictable consequences.

The Sétif riots in May 1945, marked by relentless colonialist retribution, and subsequent rigged elections, impelled a brutal revolution that began in November 1954. Camus noted: "The long years of colonialist violence explain the violence of the rebellion." Yet he opposed extremism on both sides, which led to his famous public appeal in 1956 for a civilian truce in the name of "simple humanity" since "no cause justifies the deaths of innocent people."

Both sides rejected his initiative and his anachronistic, quixotic idea of an inclusive Algeria federated with France, which still recognized the distinct character of the colonized and the colonialist. By that time, the escalating violence, notably the use of torture, had overwhelmed moderate and moral voices. "Interminable destruction" became a relentless reality of absurdity and nihilism that Camus warned the world of in "The Rebel."

The preface of "Algerian Chronicles" marked Camus' last public statement regarding the Algerian strife. He lamented: "Had my voice been heard 20 years ago, there might be less bloodshed today." Perhaps, but colonialism's irreparable damage had already been done. In January 1960, Camus perished in an automobile accident in France. Algeria became independent in July 1962.

Algerian authors and friends, such as Mouloud Feraoun (1913-'62) and Kateb Yacine (1929-'89), criticized Camus for his paternal social depiction of the colonized (notably his failure to recognize or include them adequately and accurately in his writing), as well as his inability to fully comprehend their insistent political aspirations. Yet, situated in particularly difficult and demanding historical and personal conditions, Camus found himself isolated and alienated by colonialists and by the colonized.

"The individual cannot accept history as it is," he concluded in "The Rebel." "He must destroy reality, not collaborate with it, in order to affirm his own existence." That conclusion, the assertion of one's individuality and freedom, is vital to metaphysical rebellion.

Essentially, "Algerian Chronicles" surveys the making of a metaphysical rebel, Camus himself. In his world, like ours, riven by mindless extremism and terrorism, he sought moderation, toleration and humanity. He is being reread today, without post-colonial prejudice, as a means to engage our comparable metaphysical condition.

"The role of the intellectual is to seek by his own lights to make out the respective limits of force and justice in each camp," he contended in 1958. "It is to explain the meaning of words in such a way as to sober minds and calm fanaticisms, even if this means working against the grain." "Algerian Chronicles" reminds that Camus accepted that lonely, singular role with inspiring courage and commitment.

Phillip C. Naylor is a professor of history at Marquette University and co-editor of the Journal of North African Studies.